Tuesday, 18 May 2010

Custom Command Center

Materials: Akrum base cabinets (two 30" with large drawers, two 18" with cabinets), two lengths of Langan countertop (96" and 49")

Description: As a photographer, designer and artist, I was in need of a desk solution that would accommodate all my computer/camera equipment and peripherals, plus tons of storage for materials and supplies, and with extra room on top to spare so that it could actually be used as a work/craft surface.

While I am lucky to be blessed with the space for an 11-foot desk, sadly no such product seemed to exist. I headed to the Ikea kitchen section for answers. 4 Akrum base cabinets and 2 lengths of Langan wood countertop solved the problem. The cabinets are designed to sit on legs (keeping them flat on the ground would mean the bottom drawers and cabinets would scrape against the floor), but to avoid extra height I decided to forego the legs and instead placed a few pieces of 1/2" plywood underneath to lift them just enough.

I needed a 132" top, and decided to create it out of two lengths of the Langan. The pieces were cut, sanded, stained, and waxed; with the excess used along with the set of Capita stainless steel legs to make a shelf. A hole was cut in one of the pieces to allow cords to pass through.

Even without the cabinets sitting on legs the desk is still several inches taller than normal desk height (32" instead of 28-29") but an adjustable-height chair solved the problem.

Since the drawer and cabinet faces are not pre-drilled, I was able to choose interesting hardware from another source for the pulls and handles (library card catalog pulls, which I filled with bits from vintage NYC street maps).